An Open Letter to Honey Singh

An Open Letter to Honey Singh is a 3.5-minute rap video featuring Rene Sharanya Verma, a student of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, performing at Café Zingo Star in Greater Kailash-II organised by Delhi Poetry Slam, an initiative that aims to "restore the art of spoken word into the everyday culture of the Capital".[1][2] She performed before a 30-person audience.[2] The subject of the slam was "Portrait of a Lady". The rap number was composed in one hour at the cafe.[3] The video has been uploaded to YouTube using the handle "Delhi Poetry Slam".[4] The addressee referred to in the title is Indian artist Yo Yo Honey Singh. Besides challenging Singh, the video criticizes extant value systems in the media, advertising and the arts that demean women and treat women as commodities, instead of persons.[2]

Context

Honey Singh is an Indian rapper whose work has been perceived as being vulgar, misogynist, promoting violence against women and a bad influence on youth.[5][6] There have been reactions in prose to Singh, such as from Annie Zaidi, who wrote her own "An Open Letter to Honey Singh" in January 2013,[7] and Sandipan Sharma, who wrote "Thanks for the crassness: An open letter to Honey Singh from a parent" in July 2014.[8]

Social media

The video was uploaded to YouTube on 28 January 2015.[4] It went viral on social media and had received about a million hits on YouTube by 2 February 2015.[9] As of August 10, 2015, the video had received over 1.6 million hits.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ Bhattacharya, Budhaditya (13 December 2013). "Words of Wonder". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 December 2013. Organised by Delhi Poetry Slam, an initiative that aims to “restore the art of spoken word into the everyday culture of the Capital”, the event brings together poets and performers from various backgrounds.
  2. 1 2 3 Lakhani, Somya (4 February 2015). "Don't Mess with Her". The Indian Express. Retrieved 4 February 2015. Verma never anticipated that a rap she performed in front of 30 people in Delhi would go viral, and that her inbox would be full of people congratulating her.
  3. ↑ Rawat, Gargi (3 February 2015). "My Rap Rebuttal to Yo Yo Honey Singh: A College Student's Story". NDTV. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Open Letter to Honey Singh (YouTube video). Delhi Poetry Slam. 28 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Phartiyal, Sankalp (31 December 2012). "Yo Yo Honey Singh: A vulgar obsession or our own creation?". Reuters Blogs. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  6. ↑ Chintamani, Gautam (1 January 2013). "The biggest problem with Yo Yo Honey Singh: Bollywood's embrace of him". Firstpost. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Zaidi, Annie (5 January 2013). "An open letter to Honey Singh". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Sharma, Sandipan (23 July 2014). "Thanks for the crassness: An open letter to Honey Singh from a parent". The Hindustan Times. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Yadav, Shalu (2 February 2015). "Yo Yo Honey Singh: The Indian student who took on 'misogynist' rapper". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  10. ↑ Bhasin, Simar (10 August 2015). "I'm not 'ambaran di queen' or 'kudi namkin': The spoken word". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "An Open Letter to Honey Singh". YouTube. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
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